Page 236.
Sextine. The 'Sextine' is something new in English versification. The thought in the piece translated seems rather obscure—remains, as it were, in a half-shadow—and we have not attempted to drag it into clearer light than that in which it was placed by the author. The poems of le Comte de Gramont have a masculine vigour, a loftiness of rhythm and tone, and an austere beauty, which place them in the highest rank amongst modern French poems. Some of his sonnets have almost the trumpet note of Milton.
Page 240.
Sonnet.—Sensitive Genius. It would almost seem as if the poet had Keats in his mind's eye when he wrote this sonnet.
Page 242.
Fragment of a Jacobite Lay. It would appear from this piece that Le Comte F. De Gramont's ancestors were British Jacobites, like those of the present President of the French Republic.
Page 245.
Sonnet.—Freedom. The reader will no doubt think of Wordsworth's famous sonnet, headed 'Eagles—composed at Dunnollie Castle in the Bay of Oban,' when he reads this piece by Le Comte F. de Gramont. To our mind the English poet bears away the palm. His concluding lines are verily magnificent:
'Such was this Prisoner once; and, when his plumes
The sea-blast ruffles as the storm comes on,
Then, for a moment, he, in spirit, resumes
His rank 'mong freeborn creatures, that live free,
His power, his beauty, and his majesty.
Page 248.
A Character of the Olden Time. This character is probably intended for that of the poet's father.
Page 253.
The Child on the Sea-shore. Auguste Vacquerie is a very pure poet, pure both in his life and his works. Like Wordsworth, he thinks that a poet's life must conform to his works, otherwise those works can never be sincere; and he is right. M. Vacquerie is a devoted admirer of Shakspeare, and a great friend of Victor Hugo, who calls him in 'Les Châtiments' 'the brother of his sons.' He has written a comedy entitled 'Tragaldabas.' He has also translated some plays of Shakspeare in conjunction with a friend, M. Paul Meurice. It is no disparagement to him to say, that these translations of Shakspeare are far inferior to those of an honoured friend of the present writer, Le Chevalier de Chatelain of Castelnau Lodge, the school-fellow and
